The brave first responders who pulled a suicidal Brooklyn man off the Verrazano Narrows Bridge yesterday thought they were going to lose the man, they said today at 1 Police Plaza.

The man, in his thirties, had a tense four-hour standoff with the rescuers yesterday afternoon as he threatened to jump off the bridge— snarling traffic before he was taken into police custody, authorities said.

He exited his car mid-span on the Staten Island-bound upper level about 12:30 p.m., and said he would leap from a ledge, sources said.

“He was on the very edge,” said NYPD Detective Dennis Canale. “We thought we were going to lose him.”

For four hours, he clung to a bridge cable. A Chinese language interpreter, Police Officer Yi Huang from the Fifth Precinct in lower Manhattan, was also called to the scene to assist with the negotiations.

They began a conversation with the man, who threatened to jump if officers approached, and learned that he was suffering from “a tremendous amount of personal issues,” cops said.

He said he had a terrible fight with his 18-year-old daughter and was upset over money problems.

The man also mentioned he came from the Taishan village in China, which is where Huang was also born.

“He was from my parent’s village,” said Huang today. “I told him there’s hope, and he can have a healthy relationship with his family.”

The cops forged a personal connection with the man which eventually got him to step off the ledge.

Canale told the would-be jumper about an extremely difficult time in his own life that helped the man.

“I told him that my five and a half year-old son had a brain tumor and he related to me. He had cancer treatment and survived,” he said yesterday.

Huang mentioned his own family’s experience and convinced the despondent man to think of seeing his daughter get married someday.

At 4:30 p.m., emergency responders placed a rope around him, and he came to safety voluntarily.

He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North for an evaluation.

“It was a great relief [when he came down],” said Officer Ralph Stallone, part of ESU Truck 5. “It was very fulfilling.”

The Staten Island-bound upper level was closed during the rescue, jamming up traffic for miles.

The lower level took more than twice as long to cross as the Brooklyn-bound side.